BOULDER — Long after a three-hour practice had drawn to a close Tuesday, remained on the practice court inside the Coors Events Center, sweat pouring from his temples as the Colorado junior guard fired one jump shot after another.
“We’re not going to stop shooting,” King said after finally walking off the court. “I know I’m (darn) sure going to keep shooting.”
The Buffaloes are nearing a critical juncture in a season with nothing left to do but continue firing away. At 10-6 and 0-3 in the Pac-12 Conference, CU enters the second half of its season with a razor-thin margin for error in its pursuit for a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
With fourth-ranked UCLA (16-1) visiting Boulder on Thursday, followed by a meeting with No. 25 USC (15-2) on Sunday and a trip to the Washington schools after that, CU’s hope of turning around a season that hasn’t gone according to plan begins now.
“We need a sense of urgency,” CU coach Tad Boyle said.
After making the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in five seasons last March, CU entered this season as a team that looked capable of reaching the second weekend of the tournament for this first time since it expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
The Buffs lost a key figure in forward Josh Scott, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, but they returned most everyone else and debuted , the transfer from Division II University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, who has lived up to the considerable hype with which he entered his lone Division I season.
Still, the Buffs have failed to meet expectations to this point. That has largely been the result of missing many of the game-to-game goals that have been in place since Boyle was hired to lead the Buffs in 2010.
“This is the poorest rebounding team at Colorado since this staff has been here,” Boyle said. “It’s something we continually talk about and emphasize every single day. It comes down to toughness and doing your job. When the ball goes up, it’s assuming every shot is going to be missed and going up and getting it.”
Boyle has always tried to forge an identity within Colorado basketball as a team that wins the rebound battle and does so handily. The Buffs target a plus-eight rebounding margin each game, but they haven’t hit that mark in eight games.
Last season the Buffs finished second in the Pac-12 in rebounding margin at plus-8.6 per game. This season they are seventh at plus-3.9. CU had two of the league’s top 10 players in average rebounds last season in Scott (8.8, fifth) and (7.6). This season, Gordon’s eight rebounds per game rank 11th, but CU has been unable to find consistent production on the glass elsewhere.
“It’s a team responsibility and it’s also an individual responsibility,” King said. “The three, four and five (positions) need to crash the boards every possession — no ifs, ands or buts. That’s the individual thing. As a team, if everybody does their job, we’ll improve rebounding.”
Another glaring problem for the Buffs is their 3-point shooting. A season ago they were the best outfit in the league, shooting 38.9 percent from behind the arc. That number has plunged to 32.8 percent this season, second worst in the Pac-12.
“We just have to shoot with confidence,” said White, CU’s leading scorer this season at 15.8 points per game. “We have been getting some good looks and we’re just not making them. Also, we just have to make sure we take good shots. When you take contested threes your percentage is going to go down.”
White has offered the Buffs stability at the point guard position. He’s been flexible enough to be a big-time scorer when the game calls for him to take control and has also been the team’s best distributor. Finding stability in the guard rotation outside of White has proven more difficult.
“We have five perimeter guys who aren’t playing the way they are capable of playing,” Boyle said. “Trying to pick and choose who is going to play and how much they are going to play out of those five guys is really, really difficult.”
The schedule ahead isn’t soothing. UCLA averages an eye-popping 93 points per game and is the best offensive team Boyle said he’s seen in 26 seasons in college basketball.
“We still have 15 more games,” White said. “We can’t get too high or too low. We just have to accept that we’re 0-3 (in the Pac-12) and work to improve every day.”